Ribbons of green for our families, our community and the environment.

Whether you hike, bike, stroll or roll, you'll do so with less traffic and more scenery on a greenway. These "linear parks" offer a pleasurable alternative to busy streets and noisy sidewalks. You can follow a creek or circle a lake. You can breathe deeply, chat with a friend, or play tag with a butterfly. Greenways offer an outing the whole family can enjoy.

WS Greenways is a citizen advocacy group working to get more people onto the greenways found throughout Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. We offer this website to help you have a more enjoyable experience on the trail.

We are also dedicated to the improvement and expansion of the greenways of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Our goal is a network of trails connecting destinations for work, play, school, shopping and more. Please join us in our efforts to make our community greener and more pedestrian-friendly.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Now that the long-range Greenway Plan Update has been finalized and adopted, Winston-Salem and Forsyth County have a clear and thoughtful guide to where and when new greenways will be built. So where do we go from here? On January 16, WS Greenways offers a primer on “How to Build a Greenway.” It’s a talk with Amy Crum, project planner for the Greenway Plan Update, and Matthew Burczyk, the city’s bike and pedestrian coordinator, who will walk us through all the steps of funding, routing, designing and actually constructing a greenway. They will discuss current greenway projects in various stages of development, as well as offering suggestions for how we can help move things along. Join us January 16 at 7 p.m. at the Central Library Auditorium, 660 West Fifth Street, for this important and informative discussion.

Read about the first-ever and hugely successful WFU Campus and Community Bike Ride here.

Thanks to our friends at Forsyth Audubon for planting a beautiful and bird-friendly landscape at the new entrance to Bethabara Greenway. It looks great, guys. Read more here. Photos are here and here.

We are thrilled that this year's Community Roots Day included tree-planting on the Newell-Massey Greenway. Sponsored by the Community Appearance Commission, Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, and the City of Winston-Salem Vegetation Management Department, this volunteer tree-planting event has been adding shade, fresh air and extra character to our neighborhoods for twenty years now. Thanks to the organizers of this great project and to the hundreds of volunteers who helped make Newell-Massey shadier and more beautiful. See photos here.

Thanks to the hardy WS Greenway volunteers who came out on October 6 to help clean up Salem Creek Greenway as part of the Big Sweep, a community-wide cleanup of local waterways sponsored by Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful. The area seemed much cleaner than it did when we worked on it last spring. Does that mean folks are taking better care of this great resource?

DOG DAYS ON GREENWAYS: Marion Brody Kelly’s excellent summer project was to walk her dogs Sam and Jake on each of Winston-Salem’s greenways. She tells us all about it right here.

In your pocket: The City of Winston-Salem has a handy new brochure featuring improved maps of all the greenways. You can see it online here. To order free copies contact Emerald Bowman here, or at 336.734.1221.

The Greenway Plan Update, a roadmap for future greenway development for the next couple of decades, was approved on August 27 by the Forsyth County Commissioners. Thanks to the City-County Planning Staff for their excellent work, and thanks to the Commissioners, Winston-Salem City Council and City-County Planning Board for their approval. Now let's get some new greenways built!

Improvements at the Salem Lake Greenway continue to make us happy. There is a greatly enlarged parking area at the Linville Road end, along with a wider and smoother paved path along Linville Road, and a fancy new water fountain there, complete with a doggie basin. Construction on the dam is completed, the bridge behind the dam has opened, and the lake is refilling, although slowly so far. This fall, a new meditation garden will be planted just north of the dam. Thank you, City of Winston-Salem.

SHOW OFF: Let the world (or at least the city council) know that you support Winston-Salem’s Greenways by wearing one of our stylish and comfortable WS Greenways logo t-shirts. And don’t you have a brother-in-law with a birthday coming up? Get shopping here.

WATCH IT! Faces of Winston-Salem Cyclists:
Tuula Perry's interviews with local bikers on why it's important for them to ride and how bike infrastructure can be improved in the area.